Online travel agencies (OTAs) lead all travel categories in terms of monthly unique visitors, attracting more than twice as many visitors as airline websites, the most popular supplier website category. According to Phocuswright's Japan Online Travel Traffic Report (a Global and Asia Pacific Edition publication), in May – July 2011, OTAs attracted an average of 11.3 million monthly unique visitors. Approximately one third of all travel category visitors visited an OTA site in this period. Travel information sites – the second-most frequented online travel category in Japan – averaged 7.1 million monthly unique visitors in May – July 2011.

Supplier sites, in contrast, typically attract far fewer visitors. While airlines lead among supplier websites in Japan, they attract less than half the visitors as OTAs. Other supplier website categories – ground transportation, hotel and car rental websites – trail even further.

Within the travel categories that attract the most visitors (and in fact, across all travel website categories), it is local, not global companies that dominate. Among the 10 most popular OTAs in the country, nine are local companies (Expedia Japan ranks eighth).

Travel is quietly bouncing back in the Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) market, on the back of stronger domestic demand and a healthier airline sector. ANZ reversed its 2013 decline, but still gained just 3% in local currency terms in 2014, according to Phocuswright's Australia-New Zealand Online Travel...